India's electronics exports continue to surge due to increased production and exports from Apple suppliers, and the export momentum is expected to be maintained.

According to the Economic Times, data from the Indian Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA) shows that India's electronics exports grew by 22.24% in the first nine months of fiscal year 2024 (April 2023 to March 2023), a record high in India's history, with exports exceeding $20 billion. 2024), with cell phones accounting for 52% of exports.ICEA expects exports of cell phones to increase to $1.4-15 billion by the end of March 2024, up from $11.1 billion in FY 2023.4.

Notably, ICEA says that during this period, iPhones accounted for 70% of India's cell phone exports and 35% of total electronics exports, making electronics India's fifth-largest export as of December 2023.

Meanwhile, Samsung Electronics has been overtaken by Apple suppliers such as Foxconn, PEGATRON and Wistron in terms of handset exports as Samsung has not produced enough handsets in India and has not applied for the second year of incentives offered by the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme in India. Massive Electronics Manufacturing Program, reports The Economic Times. A few days ago, Samsung said it would produce its latest Galaxy S24 series in India and export it to meet overseas demand.

Business Standard reported that Apple plans to increase iPhone production, which is expected to reach $12 billion in free-on-board (FOB) output by fiscal 2024. According to the report, Apple suppliers produced $9.4 billion worth of iPhones in India in the first nine fiscal years of this year for the month of fiscal 2024.

Seeing the huge market potential, the Indian government initiated a phased manufacturing program, with Samsung and Chinese smartphone makers expanding their handset production capacity in India after imposing tariffs on imported handsets and components after 2016. The world's largest handset manufacturing plant at the time became operational in 2018. Samsung, however, relied more on its plant in Vietnam as production costs were lower than in India. However, DIGITIMES Research observed that since the outbreak, Samsung is expanding production in India as part of its diversification strategy.